Mark Littlewood needs to resign from the Liberal Democrats in order to take up his post as head of the Free Market think-tank, the IEA.

Mark is a former Head of Communications for the Liberal Democrats, and a proper classical liberal. He was director of Liberal Vision, a think tank that campaigns for low tax, small state and greater personal liberty within the Lib Dems.

His great strength is in his media nouse and contacts. During our last party conference, Mark was able to get considerable air-time for Liberal Vision.

Personally I’m happy he’s going on to bigger and better, and I’m sure the IEA will be happy with the media clout they can get from Mark. At the same time though, what next for Liberal Vision?

The possibility that it will take on a more traditional Lib Dem structure (with an elected executive and all that sort of thing) has probably increased, and that’s probably a good thing. Liberal Vision needs to be much more than a think tank if it’s going to make a real difference to Lib Dem policy.